head to head · open source
hugo vs halo
hugo has 89,854 GitHub stars, 8,381 forks, 235 open issues and last shipped yesterday. halo has 39,787 stars, 10,329 forks, 112 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hugo leads on adoption by 126% (89,854 vs 39,787 stars). hugo is written in Go under Apache-2.0; halo is written in Java under GPL-3.0. hugo has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, halo 26%. hugo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (blog-engine, cms, content-management-system), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| hugo | halo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 90K | ★ 40K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.4K | ⑂ 10K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hugo if
- You weight community size — 90K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick halo if
- You want the halo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and halo fits your workflow better
About hugo
Hugo is a static site generator written in Go that renders a complete site in seconds, often less, and it is aimed at developers, technical writers, and content teams who build blogs, documentation sites, portfolios, landing pages, and corporate sites as static files.
About halo
Halo is an open source, Java based website building tool licensed under GPL 3.0 that lets individuals and teams publish and run a blog, knowledge base, corporate website, or online store from infrastructure they control.
More in Content & Publishing
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Frequently asked questions
Is hugo or halo more popular?
hugo has 89,854 GitHub stars and halo has 39,787. hugo has the larger community by that measure.
Are hugo and halo free?
Both are open source. hugo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and halo under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hugo and halo?
hugo is written in Go and halo in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, hugo or halo?
Choose hugo if you want the larger community (89,854 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose halo if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.